Wicken Fen on Tuesday - NOT amateur radio

This is me at Wicken Fen on Tuesday.

Sunspots - Thursday March 19th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=3.

Eurovision Song Contest cancelled - NOT amateur radio

This event has been cancelled as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51870325

OFCOM and shared rural networks

There are more details on the OFCOM website about efforts by the big 4 mobile network providers to provide a shared rural network for 4G in rural areas in the coming years.

20m FT8 (10W) again

At about 1250z I turned on 20m FT8. No spots yet on TX, although the usual clutch on RX. I must be on the same frequency as a "big" station that is not visible here.

UPDATE 1330z :  On RX 46 stations spotted so far and just one station spotting me today.

UPDATE 1626z: 28 stations have spotted me so far today. On 20m FT8 RX 223 spots of other stations in 4 continents so far today with the indoor 45cm diameter loop antenna.

UPDATE 2130z: 53 spots of my 10W FT8 today including 12 in the USA. On RX 470 stations spotted. A few QSOs were had too.

Oscar 100 upconverter

AMSAT-DL has produced a small up-converter design that can use either 70cm or 23cm input and produce 6W direct from the board at 13cm. This is quite enough output for CW/SSB in most cases. It can also take a reference frequency from an external source.

At 189.5 Euros this looks quite good value. It means a whole Oscar 100 station could be put together for far less than an HF transceiver. I am not sure if these units can be obtained ready built.

The geosynchronous Oscar 100 has been up for about a year now.

See https://amsat-dl.org/en/der-neue-qo-100-upconverter-mit-integrierter-pa-upcon6w/

Wicken Fen - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday we went for a walk around Wicken Fen. This windmill used to pump water.

This has been replaced by a modern wind pump.

Sunspots - Wednesday March 18th 2020

Solar flux is 72 and the SSN 0. A=5 and K=1.

QSY to 2m FT8

As it is getting quite late, I have decided to QSY to 2m FT8 (10W to the big-wheel omni antenna). Within the first few minutes 17 stations in 2 countries spotted me. So far, just 1 station spotted on 2m FT8 RX.

This is typical with this set-up on 2m FT8 TX. I am thinking this is some sort of scatter. As mentioned recently I do not think this is aircraft scatter. Polarisation seems not to matter that much but DX ranges seem always possible. If this was flat band tropo, I would have expected polarisation to make much more difference.

UPDATE 2052z: Now spotted by 23 stations in 3 countries with the best being G7RAU (461km) on the Lizard in Cornwall.

UPDATE 2310z:  QRT.

VHF QSO Party

Southgate News reports on a VERON QSO Party on March 21 and 22nd.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2020/march/veron-vhf-qso-party.htm